The Navy and Marines want a long-endurance unmanned plane that can operate from ships and outposts that lack airs trips. Here, Button discusses how the Blackjack aims to answer that call. With their long endurance and large payloads, unmanned aircraft like the venerable Predator allow operators in the US to keep an eye on hot spots half a world away. But US troops who could find themselves in those hot spots or aboard ships are weighing merits of an aircraft that, while it may not have the reach and payload of a Predator, has one distinct advantage: It doesn't need a runway. The Navy and Marine Corps have been evaluating the RQ-21A Blackjack--an 81-pound unmanned aircraft that is launched by a catapult and recovered by snagging a mast-mounted cable. Blackjack, built by Boeing-subsidiary Insitu, is a military version of the company's integrator. It was used for six months last year by Marines in Afghanistan and since early 2014 the Navy has been testing it on an amphibious assault ship.
No runway, no problem
Aerospace America ; 53 , 2
2015
Article (Journal)
English
Runway Safety - Runway Safety Deficiencies
Online Contents | 2009
|RUNWAY MAINTENANCE APPARATUS, RUNWAY MAINTENANCE SYSTEM AND RUNWAY MAINTENANCE METHOD
European Patent Office | 2024
|An Approach to the Runway Denial Problem
SAE Technical Papers | 1979
|Heuristics for a runway-queue management problem
SAGE Publications | 2011
|